Quantcast
Channel: Military & Defense
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 27697

REPORT: The Israeli Air Force Flew Into Syria And Bombed A Chemical Weapons Plant

$
0
0

Syrian Weapons Plant MapThe Free Syrian Army (FSA) reports that Israeli fighter jets slipped into Damascus over the weekend and bombed a chemical weapons depot outside the city.

Neither Damascus nor Jerusalem have yet confirmed the attack, according to UPI.

According to The Jewish Press (JP) "many" reports came in over the weekend confirming the mission. Sources told the JP Israeli jets arrived over Damascus early Saturday morning and circled Assad's presidential compound before moving on to target the weapons site.

The Israeli jets reportedly received fire but returned to base unscathed.

The Lebanese Daily Star confirms heavy FSA fighting occurred near the plant, the Scientific Studies and Research Center, but troops lacked the resources to breach the heavily fortified site.

Back in January, Israel bombed a Syrian convoy that may have departed from this center.

Regardless of the details, it appears to have been another deadly weekend in Syria.

The country's Network for Human Rights reports 88 deaths on Sunday aloneincluding 12 children, eight women, five torture victims and 35 armed rebels. The organization said 23 of the deaths occurred in Aleppo, 16 in and around Damascus, 13 in Idlib, 12 in Hama, 10 in Homs, and nine in Daraa.

Update: Confirmation of the attack from Israel is yet to be released. El Arabiya reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed his ministers to stay silent on anything relating to Syria.

Fox News posted a video interview with Israeli ambassador to the the U.S. Michael Oren, who offers what may be the reason we never receive any confirmation from Jerusalem at all, even if the strike actually occurred:

"[R]emoving the threat posed by Syria's chemical weapons stockpile by military force "is very, very complex."

"Even under international law, if you strike a chemical weapons base and there is collateral damage to civilians it is as if you, the attacker, used chemical weapons," he said.

What that could mean is that if the strike happened it was likely with tacit U.S. approval, or it never went down at all.

We'll keep looking for any additional information from the FSA and other sources.

SEE ALSO: An exclusive tour of the most notorious prison on earth >

Please follow Military & Defense on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 27697

Trending Articles



<script src="https://jsc.adskeeper.com/r/s/rssing.com.1596347.js" async> </script>